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Fort Walton Beach, Fla. — It’s a steamy 35 C in this small city on the Florida panhandle. Meanwhile, I am inside a giant chamber, suited up in full winter gear and watching snowflakes fall from the ceiling onto a line of vehicles below.

It’s -28 C inside the McKinley Climatic Laboratory on the Eglin Air Force Base, and Ford is showing me how it tests its cars and trucks for winter compatibility.

“One of the things we’re looking at is cold starts,” says Rich Shimon, technical expert on gasoline powertrain calibration for Ford. “When drivers get into the vehicle, they expect it to start right away and have a comfortable idle speed. Our job is to make sure our vehicles do that under any conceivable condition and with any conceivable fuel, and now we’re doing the extreme cold-weather testing.”

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Accurate testing depends on stable conditions, which is why McKinley was constructed in the first place. Many fighter planes wouldn’t start in the cold during the Second World War, and since it couldn’t count on consistent weather outside, the U.S. government commissioned the facility for testing during equipment development. It was finished in 1947, and following a major renovation that wrapped up in 1997, it was then opened up to outside companies. It runs 24 hours a day and is fully booked for the next three years.

Its five chambers can reproduce any type of weather, except tornadoes and lightning strikes. It’s the largest in the world at 5,110 square metres, can go from a high of 48 C to a low of -65 C overnight, and can replicate hurricanes, fog, freezing rain and sandstorms.

Depending on the chamber used and the type of weather requested, rental costs range from $8,000 to $30,000 (U.S.) per day.

Ford uses the big chamber for three weeks each year, primarily because of its capacity. “We’re able to get 72 vehicles and 54 engineers into the chamber,” Shimon says. Back in Michigan, his team has to share Ford’s four smaller test chambers with other departments, and it would take months to do what he can achieve in Florida in three weeks.

Vehicles will also go to Thompson, Man., for outdoor winter testing, but doing some of the work in summer helps to fit the tests into the vehicles’ production schedules.

During my visit, three current vehicles were on display, while 2017 Super Duty pickups, which share the current F-150’s aluminum-body construction and haven’t been formally introduced, were heavily camouflaged. The upcoming vehicles being tested, including some 2018 models, were hidden away from prying media eyes.

The Super Duty trucks were fired up at the start of testing, and will idle 24 hours a day for the full three weeks. Each undergoes specific tests as it runs. The engineers are looking for a variety of potential issues, such as making sure that the catalysts that help eliminate pollutants from the diesel exhaust will work in such low temperatures.

Engineers often come in from other countries to work on the testing, since fuels can vary in different areas. “We have 13 fuels identified,” Shimon says. “It’s a key component in how the vehicle starts, and one of our key responsibilities is to find the optimized settings regardless of the fuel you have.”

After shuffling my way across the slippery floor, I climb up into a 2015 Super Duty that’s hooked up to a laptop and other testing equipment. It’s supposed to start right away and then idle smoothly, which it does, while a laptop records information. “If we find a problem, our immediate goal is to figure out how to fix it,” Shimon says. “If we can’t fix it here, or we don’t have enough time, we go back to Dearborn with the data and use the cold-start facilities there.”

Ford uses the McKinley facility strictly for winter conditions, and vehicles take the heat at other test sites. As with most vehicle development, mathematical and computer models are generally so accurate that the real-life testing is primarily a verification of the numbers. “In general, we have expected behaviour,” Shimon says. “Where we’re mainly surprised is learning the correct way to control things. We have complex systems such as the injectors, throttle and actuators, and there’s not necessarily one right way of doing it, so we’re learning how to get the performance out of the engine and across the environment and fuel economy.”

It’s also almost exclusively static testing, since the floor is too slick for the traction needed to evaluate transmissions and differentials. That will be done at another site with a test track.

Almost every vehicle that goes into the chamber is under development, but if an older model gets a run of warranty claims or customer complaints, they may bring it in to try to duplicate the issue under these cold conditions.

An air lock protects the massive chamber from temperature and humidity changes. Over the three-week test, engineers will monitor the vehicles as the chamber is gradually lowered to -40 C. “We’re testing a full range of products, from Fiestas to Super Duty,” Shimon says. “It’s a unique opportunity to do extreme testing, and we can get a large amount of work done in a short space of time.”

SIDEBAR:

When it comes to accurate testing, consistent conditions are key.

That’s why companies use facilities such as the McKinley Climatic Lab. No matter what day it is, or what the weather is like outside, the engineers can count on having exactly the same temperature, humidity, or storm conditions that they had the day before.

Or, conversely, they can have something that’s completely different from what they had even a few hours prior. That’s also important, because some issues may only show up when the temperature changes, such as a frozen part that doesn’t function properly once it thaws out again.

All of this is necessary, because any vehicle sold in North America has to work just as well in Northern Canada as it does in a Nevada desert.

In addition to laboratory testing, all of the vehicles will also be put through the paces outdoors where they can be driven for long distances. At the various proving grounds, crews replicate a variety of roads, from smooth highways to potholes and rumble strips. In many cases, they’re based on actual stretches of road that have been faithfully reproduced at the facility.

Ford’s vehicles will go to Thompson, Man., in the winter for more cold-weather drive testing, and will head to the desert to see how they handle the heat. Some other fuels that don’t make it to the McKinley Laboratory will also be tested in different areas, including biodiesel, which gels at lower temperatures and usually isn’t sold in colder regions.

Jil McIntosh is a regular contributor to Toronto Star Wheels. For this story, she was a guest of the manufacturer. For more Toronto Star automotive coverage, go to thestar.com/autos . To reach Wheels Editor Norris McDonald: nmcdonald@thestar.ca .

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